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Topic: Sunrise and hives (Read 2286 times)

These are my hives at sunrise on the North York Moors. I'm hoping for heather honey from the ling heather (Calluna vulgaris). They'll stay here for a good month and I'll collect them at the beginning of September. Last years harvest was terrible and I only got 23Ibs. It was very wet. But this August has been fairly decent weather so my hopes are up. I use British nationals which have great hand holds for lifting - good for shifting onto the moors. It's not very often that I'm up at sunrise, but as I left at 3am to get my bees in place, I was lucky to witness the sun rising up above the moors. My only companions were a flock of sheep and several grouse.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

That's an interesting question John. In Britain moorland is an area of high ground (admittedly not very high: maybe 1000 feet +), that is uncultivated. But being a literary lot the British have typically turned the term 'moor' into something rather dark and portentous. You only have to think of 'Wuthering Heights' and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes)", to see what I mean. And before we carved our moors up with roads and tarmac, they were extremely inaccessible. Which is why the Cornish still feel as though they are a separate country: The granite masses of Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin Moor loom between the South West and the rest of England.

Beekeepers are interested in the moors because they are now managed for grouse shooting. This is because heather is encouraged to grow, as the grouse feed on heather shoots. The heather is encouraged by yearly burning, which promotes new growth and kills off competing vegetation.

Andrew, consider yourself fortunate that you were in that area as the sun was rising, you have such a beautiful photograph of the sun coming over the mountain. I love the time before the sun rises, that dawn, and then the sun rays as they peak over the mountain top. It holds a very special feeling in my heart when I see and feel the sun begin to show its beautiful face. Thank you for sharing and taking us to this part of your world. Have that most awesomely beautiful day, love life, love health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service